Commissioner Miller Honors Student Art Contest Winners (10/11/2017)

Artwork inspires Texas students to “Rock the Day with a Healthy School Lunch” during National School Lunch Week 2017

AUSTIN – Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller today congratulated Emilia Davila of Laredo and Marianeé Canales of Kingsville as winners in the Texas Department of Agriculture’s (TDA) You Art What You Eat! statewide student art contest. Their entries inspired posters and materials that will be used at schools across Texas to celebrate National School Lunch Week 2017, which takes place this week, Oct. 9-13. Emilia earned the top honor in the elementary school category and Marianeé won in the middle/high school contest. Their winning artwork illustrates this year’s theme, Rock the Day with a Healthy School Lunch, and sends the message that eating school meals is fun, healthy and cool.

“Emilia and Marianeé have used their creative talent to inspire young Texans to pursue healthier lifestyles,” Commissioner Miller said. “They are powerful partners for getting young people on board with my efforts to make good nutrition and local agriculture an integral part of growing up in Texas. I thank them for helping TDA show students that eating healthy school meals is not only fun but key to academic success.”

Every October, National School Lunch Week celebrates the nutritious meals served at schools each day and the dedicated nutrition professionals planning and preparing them. TDA creates a theme and a variety of resources to support these celebrations. This will be the second year TDA has incorporated the winning artwork from the You Art What You Eat! contest into materials used by child nutrition professionals statewide.

Emilia and Marianeé’s artwork inspired the designs for suggested menus, newsletter ads, social media ads, selfie stations, participation charts and flyers. This year’s contest featured second and third place winners in both the middle/high school category and the elementary contest. The posters, along with artwork from the winners and the runners up, will be on display in the State Capitol in March 2018 and featured in other TDA forums.

TDA introduced the You Art What You Eat! statewide student art contest in 2016 and invited all Texas students attending a school participating in the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs to submit entries. This year, TDA received 124 entries for the National School Lunch Week portion of the art contest. The 2018 contest will be announced in spring 2018. For more information about the contest and to see the artwork from the National School Lunch Week 2017 winners and runners up, visit SquareMeals.org/artcontest.